Well, the rains are finally here! And we all know Fall mushrooms love (and were apparently waiting for) the rains.
So it was with great hope and expectation that I travelled on Sunday afternoon into my traditional hunting grounds in the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest, after rains started on Friday.
It was quite drippy, and wet. And chilly. My hunting grounds were one or two thousand feet below the snow line.
But unfortunately, while I enjoyed the hike and met some wonderful new hunting friends (pictured below), three hours of hunting yielded very few actual mushrooms. I was looking primarily for Chanterelles and Lobsters (though I knew it was late for lobsters). I found three or four lobsters, but all not in very good condition. And about the same number of Chanterelles, but those were very dark and aged-looking. Apparently it is a bit too far past Chanterelle season now, despite the rains.
I also found a few boletes. Just a few.
Not much to speak of. So I've decided to call it a year. I may go out one more time, in a week or two, just to look, and I could be surprised. But at this point, I think our historically low rain level (over the past 5 months) has doomed this to be a not-very-famous mushroom season.
I hold high hopes for next fall!
